As it turned out, the Scottish forwards were outmuscled and outfought by a determined Irish team who looked very up for it.

Scotland's scrum took a pounding and though it has been an area of weakness for us in recent years, we've always managed to hold our own.

The fact that they were constantly on the back foot on this occasion meant Simon Taylor, Brian Redpath and Gordon Ross were unable to dictate the shape of the match.

When you look at the amount of possession and territorial advantage Scotland had you would have expected them to suffer a much closer defeat if not claim victory.

Ultimately, they did not take their chances and Ireland took everything that came their way.

The best opportunity was undoubtedly at the end of the first half when Brendan Laney threw a dreadful pass to nobody when the Scots had a 6-on-2 overlap.

That would have made a big difference - as it was we went in at half-time 13 points adrift.

In fairness to Ireland they were very strong and caused problems at the line-out all afternoon.

With the likes of Scott Murray, that's normally an area where we can bank on winning all of our own ball and a share of the opposition's ball, but we struggled on Sunday.

When the Irish get chances they really make them count and they've got a world-class player in Brian O'Driscoll, whose change of direction and acceleration for the first try was supreme.

In comparison, I always felt Scotland's back line was a worry, and at 13, 14 and 15 we did not have any cutting edge in terms of pace or finishing.

The next game is a difficult one against France in Paris and if I was Bernard Laporte I'd know exactly how to play against the Scots.

He'll want his players to dominate up front because they put the English scrum under a great amount of pressure, only to be penalised on several occasions by the
referee which I thought was a little unfair. The French also have an excellent back row and a lot of pace, which we don't have.

The weather could play a big part but if it's a lovely sunny day then the Stade de France may prove a very intimidating stage for the Scots.

You can read more of David's views on this season's RBS 6 Nations in his column for The Sunday Post.